In a March 8 Morning Joe appearance, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) pushed a number of false or misleading claims to defend his upcoming hearing into the purported radicalization of American Muslims. King deceitfully suggested that his views are in sync with the Obama administration, ignored facts to attack the Minneapolis Muslim community, misleadingly claimed that an imam "tipped off" would-be subway bomber Najibullah Zazi, and falsely suggested that the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) does not support Muslim Americans cooperating with law enforcement.

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) has announced that his upcoming hearing on the radicalization of American Muslims will include testimony from Abdirizak Bihi and Melvin Bledsoe, who King describes as "relatives of people who were radicalized," who will speak on "how they were radicalized, and the lack of cooperation" from Muslim leaders. But the stories of their family members actually undermine King's case. Bledsoe is the father of alleged Little Rock Army recruiting center shooter Abdulhakin Muhammad. While Bledsoe has said that unnamed "foreign nationals" in the Nashville Muslim community radicalized his son, Muhammad, his lawyer, and the FBI have all reportedly said he was radicalized while imprisoned in Yemen. Muhammad rarely attended mosques while living in the U.S. both before and after his Yemen trip, and was repeatedly interviewed by the FBI following his return. Abdirizak Bihi is the uncle of Burhan Hassan, one of a number of Minneapolis Somali American youths who were recruited by a Somali terror group and died in Somalia. But the resulting investigation is considered a breakthrough in law enforcement outreach to the Muslim community that the FBI is reportedly trying to replicate nationwide.

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) has said that his upcoming hearing into the radicalization of Muslim Americans is necessary because law enforcement officials say Muslim Americans are uncooperative in terror investigations. But King does not plan to call law enforcement or counterintelligence officials to testify at his hearing, and many such experts — including Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI director Robert Mueller — have lauded the cooperation of Muslim Americans with law enforcement. Moreover, studies indicate that the American Muslim community has been a crucial resource in helping law enforcement to stop terrorist attacks.

For the first time in weeks, the Sunday political shows didn't touch on GOP union-busting efforts in Wisconsin and elsewhere, choosing instead to focus on national economic issues. That meant a series of tired talking points from familiar Republican faces. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) implied Democrats have raised taxes, when in fact they've cut taxes by hundreds of billions. Reps. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and Michele Bachmann (R-MN) ignored economic growth and 1.5 million new private sector jobs in the past year to attack President Obama's economic policies. Bachmann also misled NBC viewers about the Affordable Care Act and the partisan nature of the Tea Party. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) claimed the administration has protected government workers at the expense of private sector jobs. On less familiar topics, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) dishonestly insisted American Muslims don't cooperate with law enforcement despite much evidence to the contrary, and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) foolishly claimed that Apple electronics are manufactured in America. Somebody should tell that to the Chinese factory workers who built your iPhone.

Rep. Peter King plans to begin hearings on March 10 to investigate the "radicalization of the American Muslim community," allegedly with the aim of shining a light on the supposed failure of America's Muslim communities to cooperate with law enforcement officials investigating terrorist plots. His star witness is Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a physician and former U.S. Navy medical officer with no background in law enforcement or public policy. What Jasser lacks in expertise, he makes up for in ties to right-wing media figures, appearances in documentaries that have been rejected by PBS and the New York Police Department, and a willingness to call Muslim civil rights groups with which he disagrees "fronts" for the Muslim Brotherhood.

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) has said that Zuhdi Jasser, who professionally fear mongers about the dangers of "American Islamist organizations," will be the star witness at King's upcoming hearings on Muslim radicalism in the United States. King is not the only right-wing figure to tout Jasser: Glenn Beck has declared Jasser "one Muslim that we were all searching for after 9-11" and "a voice that I trust." Moreover, in recent days, Glenn Beck has called upon Jasser to help push his theory that the uprisings in Egypt were the result of communists and Islamists engaged in a conspiracy to create a Marxist revolution or an Islamic caliphate. Even many conservatives have rejected Beck's claims as "delusional," "wacky," and evidence that Beck is "out of control."